The circuit of Montmelo was hot from the very beginning of the day, with track temperatures reaching 31c in the morning Warm-Up session. Andrea Iannone once again confirmed strong pace and put in a good lap time to finish the session just 0.385 from the top. Alex Rins and Sylvain Guintoli used this morning Warm-Up to make final adjustments.

The Catalan GP had a lot of drama and an extremely high attrition from the very start. Unfortunately, Sylvain Guintoli was one of the early crashers, although the Frenchman was thankfully uninjured. Alex Rins found himself with clear track after making up some positions from grid, he had hoped to concentrate on consistent laps but a bike problem ruled him out. Andrea Iannone made a great start and was able to put his aggressive riding style to good use in the early laps. The Italian dropped back towards the end of the race but was still able to take a Top 10 finish and useful points.

Ken Kawauchi - Technical Manager
“Unfortunately this was the worst race of this year. This weekend Andrea had good speed, but he couldn’t show this speed in the race because the conditions were very difficult. I have to say I’m very sorry to Alex, because we had some bike problems. Now we’ll check what exactly was the problem. Our third rider, Sylvain, crashed unfortunately. Tomorrow we have a test day, and we’ll try many different things and start again in Assen.”

Davide Brivio - Team Manager
“It’s been a difficult day. Andrea tried his best, he made a good start and pushed very hard since the beginning of the race. This probably affected the tyre wear over race distance, especially on this lower grip circuit, and so he had to slow down later. In the end he finished 10th. On the other side, Alex was really unlucky to suffer a technical problem and he had to retire from the race. It’s been tough in general this weekend for Alex because we also struggled in qualifying. It’s also a pity for Sylvain, because he was very happy to race here and I’m sorry for him that he crashed. It’s been a difficult weekend, but every weekend is a different story, so we’ll look forward to the next one and try to get back to better positions.”

Andrea Iannone
“I’m not so happy because I tried really hard but I couldn’t achieve the result I wanted. For sure we have improved the bike a lot in some areas, but in others we still have work to do, especially when accelerating and trying to control sliding. In any case, I’m happy with my performance because I tried my best when the tyres were good, and I was close to the top at the start so that was important. I hope we’ll make more improvements in the coming races.”

Alex Rins
“For sure, the race was difficult from the beginning in terms of conditions. Then on Lap 5 I started to feel something wrong with the bike, and it got worse, so I decided to come back to the box and it seems that it was an electric issue. It’s been a strange weekend for us, because on Friday and Saturday the race pace has been good, but I was missing something when trying to set a fast lap. But we’ll take the positive things, and think about the negative things and how to change and improve. At Assen I expect to come back to the top and I hope for a good weekend there.”

Sylvain Guintoli
“Obviously I’m disappointed because I really wanted to finish the race and enjoy it. I did enjoy it, but not for very long unfortunately! I lost grip on the front early on in the race and went down at Turn 7. There were a lot of crashes, so if I had stayed on and kept a consistent pace I would have scored points which would have been nice for the record. But that’s just how it is, lots of riders got caught out and unfortunately I was one of them. Now we’ll concentrate on the test tomorrow, and I’m fine physically.”